PSW offers a confidential, supportive 1-1 meeting with one of our experienced team to talk through your situation and come up with an action plan.
We are completely separate to your educational training.
We offer a range of support and work with you to develop a bespoke plan:
- Confidential 1:1 PSW meeting
- Counselling
- Coaching
- Exam, revision and dyslexia support
- Language and Communication Skills
- Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) (Severn) (Peninsula)
- Clinical/learning environment concerns
- Less Than Full Time (LTFT) training
- Neurodiversity
Confidential 1:1 PSW meeting:
When you complete a referral form for Professional Support & Wellbeing, you will be offered a confidential meeting with a member of PSW to talk through your situation and to help you come up with an action plan moving forward.
The aim of the meeting is to be supportive and is an opportunity for you to explore what options and resources would be helpful for you – allowing you to come up with a bespoke plan of support moving forward, often involving onward referral to one of our resource providers below.
Onward referral to one of our resource providers does require an initial PSW meeting, to ensure that the plan and referral is the most appropriate for you and your situation.
We take confidentiality seriously here at PSW and work hard to keep the service we offer to you separate from other areas of postgraduate medical education, such as ARCPs for example. We believe it is vital that you feel you can open up to us about the challenges you are experiencing in order that we can best support you. If we are concerned about the safety of you or others, we may need to discuss whether maintaining confidentiality is appropriate.
Counselling:
We provide an independent and free short-term counselling service for all postgraduate doctors/dentists/pharmacists/ECPs in training within the South West.
This service is designed to offer timely, independent, and confidential support should a GP referral be delayed or trust support is not available.
We fund up to 9 sessions for you, as a stop-gap to you accessing longer-term support either through the NHS or privately, should you need this. We are unable to fund counselling on a long-term basis.
Counselling is a talking therapy, and it can offer you an effective way of managing your mental health.
Coaching:
The aim of the coaching is to bring out the best in the individual, unlocking your potential through guided conversation and questioning.
A coach will work with you as a facilitator, helping to raise your awareness through analysis and reflection, and therefore enabling you to formulate your own ideas and solutions.
We fund up to a maximum of 6 sessions of coaching for you.
Exam, revision and dyslexia support:
This resource can help identify causes of poor exam results and study performance through coaching tools and screening and assessing for dyslexia, dyspraxia, visual stress and other cognitive issues.
We have additionally put together an exam revision guide, which you can view here.
Language and Communication Skills:
If English is not your first language and you are experiencing difficulties communicating with others, our language sessions can be a useful resource for exploring underlying language and communication issues.
This resource helps individuals improve upon their existing use of English in the workplace and focuses on how to deal with patients/relatives and colleagues in a clear and appropriate manner.
Check out this Communication Skills App developed by the Peninsula Deanery.
Supported Return to Training:
There has been national recognition if you have been away from clinical practice for more than 12 weeks, for whatever reason, you could benefit from a bespoke package of support so that you are given the best chance at a successful and supported return to work.
You can find out more about the SuppoRTT here
Clinical/learning environment concerns:
What should you do if you have an immediate concern about your training?
- Immediate patient safety concerns should be reported via your usual Trust reporting system
- Other urgent concerns should be raised with your Clinical Supervisor (CS), Training Programme Director (TPD)/ Foundation Programme Director (FPD), Director of Medical Education (DME) or Education Supervisor (ES)
- Concerns can also be raised through the NHS England South West Quality Team via EscalatingConcerns.SW@hee.nhs.uk.
- Freedom to Speak Up Guardian in your trust
- Guardian of Safe Working in your trust
You can find out more about escalating concerns across the South West region here.
Less Than Full Time (LTFT) Training:
Funding for Less Than Full Time (LTFT) training may be appropriate for your training if you have circumstances which would benefit from you working LTFT, such as childcare responsibilities or personal health.
- Information regarding the Peninsula LTFT process can be found here
- Information regarding the Severn LTFT process can be found here
Neurodiversity
PSW is there to provide support to individuals with neurodiversity (whether they have a formal diagnosis or not) if it is adversely affecting their progression through training. This will be via coaching, exam support, counselling for example.
We are not able to provide assessments or diagnosis for ADHD and Autism spectrum disorder.
We will provide an assessment to those with possible dyslexia affecting their exams or progression through training.
